CCSF Faculty and Friends, Family Celebrate the Life of Elender Wall

Elender Wall was the daughter of two CCSF retired faculty members, Ellen and Dave Wall.  You can see how stunningly beautiful she was--a Wonder Woman!--and that's how she'll be remembered--forever beautiful, forever loved and loving.

I want to jot down what I remember about the tributes paid to her yesterday.

The welcome was made by Ellen St. Thomas, a neighbor and singing colleague.  Then interspersed among music performances there were remembrances by Karolo Aparicio, Jason Shankle, David Moulton, her father David Wall, Bella Fong, Bryant Kong, Lynda Williams, her fiance Chris Hardaker, ..Ellen spoke briefly, mainly to welcome people and thank friends and family.

Just to identify them so I can write more later:  Karolo Aparicio (like so many others) knew Elender from Aptos Middle School.  He may have been the one who describe junior high as a long awkward age for him, but not for Elender.  He was in to Dungeons and Dragons and had a bad haircut ("Sorry, Mom") but felt that there was hope because "I'm a friend of Wonder Woman."  He spoke of the remembrance service for her in Berlin and said that even though there was a darkness because of her death, light remains because of the way she lived with kindness, talent, intellect.

People said the music was chosen by Elender or people who knew she would like it.

After Karolo Aparicio's remembrance Adam Schilling (with Lisa Houston as Echo) sang "Trues Echo dieser Orten" BVW Cantata 213 Herkules auf dem Scheidewege by Johann Sebastian Bach.  As with all the music selections except Lynda Williams (a capella) and the two songs by the Cauthen family (on guitar and fiddle), Chun Mei Wilson was the pianist.

Then Jason Shankle paid a tribute, remembering that they were in middle school together at Aptos, and he wanted some women in their basement.  Elender let them know that they were on a life path.  "You can climb down your own hand or join us."

Adam Schilling and Ellen St. Thomas sang "Pur ti miro" from L'incoronazione de Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi.  Maybe someone said "For Frederiha Houston in Berline."

David Mouton remember Elender as one of his three best friends.

Then Heather McFadden sang "Habanera" from Carmen by Georges Bizet.

Who was it that said he was Jonathan to Elender's Dracula when they were 11 years old?  Was that someone who coldn't be there--Frederik Houston?

Someone said Elender had invited him to visit her in London, but he'd thought that was just a pleasantry until it occurred to him that he could do just that--and did!  He later visited her in NY, Paris, and Berlin.

Who spoke of Buffy the Vampire slayer?  That person said they were at each other's weddings and also said that on her birthday each year, he'd give her a mathematical fact about her new age.

She was credited with co-editing her father's physics book and being in music and arts as well as science--a huge presence--Wonder Woman with a joie de vivre, usually smiling, often laughing and exclaiming, "Wow!  Fabulous!"

At the end, she said, Everything about my life is great except for one thing...

When she was taking pills, he asked her what color it was, and she said yes.  "Ah, the red pill!" he said.

Heather McFadden sang "Haanera" from Carmen by georges Bizet

David Wall, her father,credited Elender with editing his book with him.  "She took out all the seventies language.

 He said "She's now in the place where she knows whether life is all there is."  He said she was an atheist, but he's a Presbyterian.    His own father was a psychologist and talked abot grief counseling with its various stages beginning with denial and goin on toe anger and other states.  He said he wasn't going to go to anger but would just stay in denial.

After DAvid Wall spoke, Heather McFadden sang "Schmerzen" from Wesndonk Lieder by Richard Wagner.

Bella Fong, who knew Elender in Middle School, said Elender was "larger than life.  At eleven years old, she already had an infectious laugh.  Bella Fong said that as an Aisan daugher, she was expected to become a doctor or engineer, bu Elender got her interested in the performing arts and helped her develop her creative, artisic sides at the Herbst Theater and with Geeks and Schazas (?)  Somehow Elender's parents Ellen and Dave succeeded in persuading her parents to take two days off of school to go to Disneyland, where they told their teachers they would conduct science experiments:  They would see how their pulses differed according to each of the 20 rides.    Elender always kept in touch--always.  Chris, Ellen, her children adored her--as everything including a belly dancer.  Bella Fong said that she thought Elender was "up there with the angels, maybe talking with my dad."

Bryant Kong, the composer of the music for the Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, also spoke briefly about Elender, " ahampion of new music."  She believed in creating comunity anto achieve potential.  So her wrote the music for the poems by Rumsfeld.  He said that Elender, Ellen, and David always welcomed him.

After he spoke he played "Sure on this Shining Night" by Samuel Barber on the piano, and Lisa Houston sang that as well as "Song" by Edward MacDowell.  Bryant Kong read a poem set to music before he played the music on the piano.

Then Lynda Williams gave a from the heart talk, speaking of Elender's "electro-magnetism."  She felt that they were in the same (sphere?)  They went to physicsscool together, and Lynda told her sister about Elender, whom Elender soon married.  Lynda Williams said she wondered why death had taken a person who was so clean and beautifu "and I'm such a dirty wretch."  Her sister wrote a song for Elender even before she met her  "Tomorrows will be yesterdays."

Lynda Williams also commented that it was just right that Elender was born on Valentine's Day.  Lynda's physics students are graeful that she's been trying to be more like Elender.

I think after Lnda Williams' song Terrence O'Brien, who met Elender in Wagner class (or was that Lynda Williams)  Terrence O'Brien was Elender's romate in Berlin.Terrenc, sang "Wintersturme" from Die Walkure by richard Wagner.  He said that Elender always saw herself as a Wagner singer.

Then Elender's fiance Chris Hardaker spoke, saying that they had met on Internet dating, and when she walked in, he found her stunning and also eloquent.  It was the best coffee he'd ever had.  "Gosh, she was gorgeous."  They went on to have the "best vegan food."  They met on Sunday and met again the following Tuesday.  But Elender was married to?  and he had his "litany."  But they felt they had met at the "right time for us."  At the end of the thrid date, they were going forward.  They held hands, hugged, kissed.  They would say "Have I told you lately...?" without having to finish the question.  How lucky I am.  How much I love you.  Sometimes they would say "I love you this much" and show a speck, but the "universe was a loop.  They Elender started to show signs of illness.
She made him see 5 operas in one weekend in prague.  He took her to a rocket museum.  Did he say something about sipping cheap?  They would then go to the Ritz Carleton, where he has a picture of her drinking from a coconut like a monkey's head.  "Simple pleasures."  Her thoughts in her last weeks were for others.  She was unhappy with the length of time.  But she sang sitting down and said, "If this is the pentacle of my career, I can live with that."  He spoke of New Zealand her "love's long shadow."  He wanted at least five times to endhis life, but people--Larissa, Sam, Lee, Terence, Dave, Ellen,Linda had reached out to him.

He said he had threatened Elender, "If you die on me, I'm going to go omnivorous."  and he did.  But now he said, he wanted to be more like Elender--"kind, generous, supportive, living lightly on this planet."  (During the reception afterwards I asked him whether "living lightly on this planet" met being vegan, and he said yes.  I told him I'd made vegan cookies.)

After Chris Hardaker spoke, Lisa Houston sang "The Colors of My Life" by Cy Coleman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC_NxE4o98g

Then Terrence O'Brien sang "It All Fades Away:  (but you) from The Bridges of Madison County by Jason Robert Brown.  I think soeone called up Medeline Mueller, but I think it was Ellen and some others who went up.

Linny Carlson of the music department said something like "I'll call myself a musician.  What the hell, I can call myself whateaver I want,. Life is short."    Maybe he was the one who said he was a "late-comer to the Elender cavalcade"  I think he met elener after she and Bryant did a recording on Rumsfeld's poetry--that "absolutely disturbed man, making "art out of weirdness of life.

I think this was where they read something written by frederich Harris, pianist, who couldnt' be there.
Judy Hubbel was sick in bed but sent a remembrance of Elender as "singer, teacher, actor, physicist..." a singer in German, English, Italian.  Before twenty!  She mentioned "Green" by  ?  And was admitted tot eh Conservatory and SFSU.  (Apparently she dropped out of high school two years early and went to City College.)

Maybe it was Ellen who mentioned Jerry Mueller.   I have his name down with "What would she have done?  A strong advocate for the music dept.  Once more there was mention of her likeness to Wonder Woman.

Elender started singing in the Diego Rivera Theater, Ellen said.  "By the way, this college never lost its accreditation."

Ellen also invited us to take photos of Elender or buy the CD of Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld.  "You've ben a friend to me."  She commented on Chris' commetn, confirming that Elender would "turn the conversation around" away from her illness.

Then Ellen's sister Joyce, brother-in-lsaw Jim, and niece Carey Cauthen sang "You've Been a Friend to Me" by the Carter Family and finally "Keep on the Sunny Side" also by the Carter Family.  

Will Maynez's Tribute to Julia Bergman

Will Maynez was the first person I thought of when I heard the sad news that Julia Bergman had died.  He just sent out a beautifully-written tribute to her to his Friends of Diego Rivera listserve along with these two photos:

Dear Friends of Diego,

It is with deep regret that I report that Julia Bergman, my Diego Rivera research partner, passed away peacefully on Monday January 9^th after a long struggle with chronic health issues.

I had already been at City College for 18 years when I first met her. As she put it, we were “joined at the hip” for the next 20 years. She was the real deal. As a librarian she helped and mentored many people. As an advocate for City College, she was ferocious. As an integral member of the Central Asia institute, she lovingly created girl’s schools and libraries high in the Karakorum Mountains of northern Pakistan. She co-wrote the history of City College. It’s not often you have a hero, who also calls you friend. Our telepathy and synchronicity were manifest. People would ask, “How did you do that?” We had enough sense not to take credit. The cosmos loved us and we just had to stay out of the way.

As the archivist for the Diego Rivera Mural Project, she created a collection of this unique part of Diego Rivera’s life, which is unparalleled. Scholars come from all over to utilize it. When we first got together, I would discover a new insight and want to hoard it, like a squirrel with an acorn. “No,” said the librarian, “we must share it.” She, of course, was right. Putting it out there brought multiple rewards.

She was excited about our planned trip next month to Mexico City, where we had gone multiple times. On our first visit many years ago, she taught me how to drink Tequila. On that visit we went to Teotihuacan, the vast complex outside Mexico City. We hired a driver in a van to take us. He asked if he could bring his nephew. “Of course.” Before the nephew and I sprinted to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, she said, “Don’t wait on me. I’m built for comfort, not speed!” After ½ an hour at the top, just as we were about to descend, here came Julia over the top. Attached are pictures of the pyramid and Julia and me on top of the world.

For the last couple of years, we had been very much aware of our mortality as we became the last two working members of the Diego Rivera Mural Project. We became very active in “institutionalizing the project, before we were institutionalized.” To that end last semester she gave up the Chair of the CCSF Works of Art Committee she had held for 20 years. The amount of good done for the College’s art collection during her tenure is well-documented. Attached is a picture of Julia and me at the Art Deco Society of California’s Preservation Ball, where we were honored with the 2015 Michael Crowe Preservation Award.

Last summer Julia and I took a long-awaited trip to Canada to pore over the “lost“ Diego Rivera papers we had found after a 15 year search. It took us an additional 3 years to find a window around our mutual caregiving responsibilities. She is the only person in the world I would have trusted to read half of the 2000 page collection. We had a very successful trip. Locked in a windowless room in the bowels of a museum, we would tell each other, “Listen to this” and “Oh, that’s good!” On our last brightly lit day at an outdoor café with majestic mountains about us, we drank a toast: “To our friendship and to not leading a diminished life.” I rejoice in her life, well and generously lived.

[We are planning a Celebration of Julia’s Life on Saturday Feb. 25, 2017 at 1 p.m. at City College with more details to follow as we firm it up.]

Abrazos,

Will

Timeline for the CCSF Accreditation Question(s)

I've taken this from the SF Examiner.  

http://www.sfexaminer.com/ccsfs-accreditation-reaffirmed-7-years/

July 2, 2012: The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges places City College of San Francisco in “show cause” status, which happens when the commission finds that an institution is in “substantial non-compliance” with the commission’s eligibility requirements, accreditation standards or policies, or when the institution has not responded to imposed conditions.

July 3, 2013: The ACCJC announces it will revoke CCSF’s accreditation in 2014.

July 8, 2013: The California Community Colleges Board of Governors puts CCSF’s special trustee Robert Agrella in charge of all decision-making at the school, stripping CCSF’s elected Board of Trustees of power.

Aug. 22, 2013: The City Attorney’s Office files a lawsuit against the ACCJC, contending the commission was motivated by politics when it announced CCSF’s loss of accreditation.

Oct. 17, 2013: Art Tyler, the former head of Compton College, is named chancellor of CCSF.

Jan. 2, 2014: San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow rules CCSF cannot be stripped of its accreditation until the outcome of the lawsuit between the ACCJC and City Attorney’s Office.

March 25, 2014: The Board of Supervisors unanimously approves a resolution calling on then- State Community College Chancellor Brice Harris to restore power to CCSF’s elected Board of Trustees.

June 11, 2014: The ACCJC announces a new policy called “restoration status” that would give CCSF more time to meet accrediting requirements. CCSF was required to apply for this status, which it was ultimately granted.

July 21, 2014: The ACCJC confirms its 2013 decision to terminate CCSF’s accreditation.

Oct. 27, 2014: Trial begins between the ACCJC and City Attorney’s Office in the lawsuit claiming the commission treated CCSF unfairly in its review process. The suit also called for the court to overturn the ACCJC’s decision in July 2013 to revoke the college’s accreditation.

Oct. 31, 2014: Live testimony ends in the trial between the ACCJC and City Attorney’s Office over whether the accrediting commission unfairly evaluated CCSF.

Jan. 14, 2015: CCSF is granted restoration status, allowing the school two more years to meet all of its accrediting requirements.

Feb. 17, 2015: Judge Curtis Karnow orders the ACCJC to reconsider its 2013 decision to revoke CCSF’s accreditation. That decision marked the final ruling in the lawsuit between the commission and City Attorney’s Office.

June 5, 2015: Art Tyler steps down as chancellor of CCSF. Susan Lamb is named interim chancellor.

July 2015: CCSF elected trustees regain authority over all aspects of the school.

July 29, 2016: CCSF submits its self-evaluation report to the ACCJC, providing evidence as to how the school has met its accreditation requirements.

Oct. 10-14, 2016: An accrediting team visits CCSF ahead of its decision on whether the school will retain its accreditation.

Jan. 13, 2017: The ACCJC announces that CCSF will retain its accreditation for another seven years.

City College of San Francisco Has Been Fully-Accredited for Another 7 Years

This news comes with a feeling of relief, but there's still something else to consider:  What kind of college will CCSF be "allowed" to be?  We want it to be more than a junior college, just preparing students for a four-year university or the job market.

The word in this article that I don't like is "promised" as in "But the promised revocation (of earlier years) was repeatedly held at by.

Why isn't the word "threatened" revocation?

On the other hand, Nanette Asimov  refers to the ACCJC, the accrediting commision,  as "once hard-nosed" and says that it's "been transformed by its battle with City College."

vv

Julia Bergman--Gone but Still Very Present

We got the sad news of Julia Bergman's passing about the same time that the SF Chronicle ran a long article about the upcoming judgment on CCSF by the ACCJC.

Julia Bergman was a great presence at CCSF--librarian and Diego Rivera Explorer with Will Maynez for more than 17 years.  She was also a catalyst at the inception of what became known as  the Three Cups of Tea.  (It's now 3000 Cups of Tea.)

This is a picture Bob Irwin sent me after her death; he said it was one of his favorites.  He probably took it!

I commented that even though we're using the past tense for her now, she feels very present!